And the shrike. Loggerhead shrike.
—–Original Message—–
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 11:41 PM
To: Bill Taylor (E-mail); David Taylor (E-mail); Tom Taylor (E-mail)
Subject: pecos
Saw a few birds today. Several sandhill crane flyovers. Collared dove,
white winged dove, roadrunner, say’s phoebe. We’ve been watching for
Chihuahuan Ravens. Seen common ravens all day, but not the Chihuahuan yet.
Pecos
Saw a few birds today. Several sandhill crane flyovers. Collared dove,
white winged dove, roadrunner, say’s phoebe. We’ve been watching for
Chihuahuan Ravens. Seen common ravens all day, but not the Chihuahuan yet.
Pecos
Friday. Gone from Las Vegas. Gone from New Mexico. Job done. Last job in
New Mexico. Last job for the year. Headed south. A full tank of fuel, and
south for the Montezuma quail. That’s right, we’re back on the trail of the
quail again. US Highway 285, a very familiar north/south highway in
Colorado. We pick it up south of Las Vegas and follow it through Roswell,
Artesia, and Carlsbad, to Pecos, Texas. A very windy day from the west. We
spent all day steering to the right. Done for the day, stopped early for
the night. It’s a very warm drive, driving south in the fishbowl. Much as we love
Imax, our one-piece windshield, it’s a lot like boiling in a fishbowl in the
sun, driving south on a sunny day. We have drop down sun visors and air
conditioning, so it’s not like we’re suffering, just making accommodations
for the solar gain. Tomorrow morning we’ll be off early for the remaining seventy-five miles to
our target destination, Davis Mountains State Park. The Davis mountains,
named after Jefferson Davis, constitute the most extensive mountain range in
Texas. The State Park, where the target quail live, is just outside Fort
Davis, south of Interstate 10. Montezuma quail. Uncommon in arid
grasslands mixed with oak trees. We’ll do quail and football-on-television
at the state park until we get done with both.
Pecos
We drove from mountain time to central time today. We’ll be in the central
time zone for a while, so we change all the clocks. How hard could that be?
The cell phones change themselves. I changed the clock in Aladdin, the
motorhome information center, while driving. Then we have the travel alarm,
two palm pilots, the microwave, car clock in the Jeep, Judy’s computer, my
computer, coffeepot. That’s eleven clocks to change. No way there could be
twelve. We must have got them all. Oops. The Bose radio. Twelve. I haven’t figured out if there is anything
to change in the television, satellite box, VCR, or DVD player yet.
Bosque
Sandhills in the sunset.